The “Cursa” never disappoints. The oldest car race in the world largely respected tradition and offered a show worthy of its 117-year history, even in the 107th edition organized by AC Palermo together with the Automobile Club of Italy, valid as the third act of the Ciar Sparco, first for the Ciar Junior youth series and opening of the 8th Zone Rally Cup. Capable of gathering 216 cars at the start, including modern and historic cars engaged in the third round of the Italian Historic Car Rally Championship and in the first version of the Targa Florio Historic Regularity Rally.
Skoda Fabia RS and Renault Clio Rally3: the Italian debut of the new models
The third round of Ciar Sparco was the occasion for a double debut: in the premier class, rally2, the new Skoda Fabia RS made its debut with the Basso-Granai crew supported by the Delta Rally team. While the absolute debut was for the new Renault Clio Rally3, homologated just a short time before the Targa Florio, brought into the race by Casella-Siragusano (winners of the Ciar Junior last year) with the support of the Motorsport Italia team. Both cars finished with excellent results: a second overall for the Czech sports car while the nineteenth overall for the 260 HP four-wheel drive turbo French girl.
Crugnola (Citroën) conquers the third success of the season
Crugnola-Ometto on the Citroën C3 rally2 took the top step of the podium in Termini Imerese after 9 special stages in 95 timed km, the authors of a decisive start, which immediately launched them into the lead of the general classification. At the finish line, the driver from Varese on the French four-wheel drive of FPF Sport won five special stages, finishing 20.9” ahead of his first pursuer. A bitter taste remains for Giandomenico Basso and Lorenzo Granai for what could have been a hard-fought challenge to the finish line: the crew paid dearly for a mistake on PS4, losing almost 20” which they then took to the checkered flag. where he still finished in second place. At the end of the race, the Italian found more and more feeling with the latest car born around Mlada Boleslav, bringing home two special stages. For him also a point obtained thanks to the third place in the Power Stage. The highly acclaimed home driver Marco Runfola closes the overall podium, with Corinne Federighi, a hero for the Sicilians who return to the Targa podium four years after the last Andrea Nucita in 2019. The Cefalù native also closed the best scratch in “Cefalù 1”, a romantic moment for him and all his supporters. Runfola does not take, but takes away points for the tricolor from Fabio Andolfi and Nicolò Gonella, on Skoda Fabia Evo, who in the end defended the fourth position with 2”. Excellent this time the performance of the Slovenian Bostjan Avbelj, recently with an Italian licence, who redeemed himself on the Madonie asphalt from the zero he suffered in Alba, with a top-level performance alongside Damijan Andrejka, who is not only worth the fifth place overall but also the first position in the CIR Promozione and the relaunch in the standings.
Ciar 2 wheel drive: Pisani conquers the third victory
Gianandrea Pisani collects the third consecutive victory in the Ciar Due Ruote Motrici. A solid race that of the Lucchese, who held the reins of the classification reserved for the all-forward from start to finish. In second place was an emerging Moreno Cambiaghi, who accompanied by Giulia Paganoni to the notes, found the right feeling with the French girl and after the first few bars, already fought, he managed the good advantage of 20″ against his pursuers and confirmed himself as second strength of the category. Lastly, Fabio Farina and Gabriele Zanni climbed to the lowest step of the podium, winning the very tight duel with “Lucchesi Jr” and Chiara Lombardi only on the final kilometers of the special, after a race all in crescendo. Worth noting are the withdrawals of Gabriel Di Pietro and by Stefano Santero.
Ciar Junior: first round of the season
There was no better way to debut in the 2023 season for the young crews of the Absolute Italian Rally Junior Championship, with a hard-fought opening round on the roads of legend. In the end, it was Davide Pesavento who came out on top, in the cockpit with Marco Frigo, the most constant of the ACI Team Italia crews. The tussle between the young Azzurrini was spectacular with as many as four crews winning the various races. The first one in particular, the power stage, went to Igor Iani and Puliani Nicola, who then closed by a hair’s breadth from the first place with 1.8” of delay. In the top3, by no means, Riccardo Pederzani ends up there, with Edoardo Brovelli, who is also more balanced than the aggressive local driver Salvatore Pio Scannella together with Carmelo Galipò who, however, despite many scratches, pays 7 tenths on the podium at the checkered flag . At the end of the race, chills on the last stage for Pesavento who suffered a bit of trouble with the brakes but managed to contain Iani’s recovery until he achieved the final victory.